Cooling a 1600w+ Room

drcheat

Member
I am planing a vertical room, probably about 5x5 or 6x6 in size. I do not plan on using cool tubes. How much FPS exhaust fan would I need to cool it?

I scored a pair of cle2l2x fans at a flee market @ $10 apiece :) .
http://www.thehydroponicplace.com/store-products-FA141-DAYTON-CLE2L2X-AXIAL-FAN-550-CFM-115-VOLT_41779096.html
Will this be enough to cool a room? What would be the best setup to do it? I could not find info on airflow and such. :(

My idea was to have one of the fans under the bulb, and the other as exhaust. Or should I get a cheaper fan under it and find a better use for it? The website, though, says "It is meant for free flow and not meant to push air through ducting. Back pressure will burn this fan out." So can I even use it to vent the room?

Will I be able to use it if I want CO2 in the future?
Can anyone help? Thanks!
 

tet1953

Well-Known Member
You're talking 1600w of HID, right? Wow, that's a small space for that much wattage. It will definitely be hot. Let's split the difference and say it's 5x6, or 30 sq ft. Multiply that by your height and you have cubic feet. Let's say it's 7 feet high. So you have 7 x 30 = 210 cubic feet. A 170 CFM fan will completely exchange the air in the room in a little over a minute. What you have for intake will make a difference also. Is the room totally enclosed, except for door cracks etc or do you have an intake vent? What's on the walls such as reflective materials etc?

There are a lot of variables as you can see. At the end of the day all you can do is take what you have and set it up and get some readings. Get it dialed in before you plant anything.
 

drcheat

Member
I don't have a room yet, I'm in the process of getting all the supplies to make one. But I already have plants, everything is just in the open basement. I need to build the room and move everything I want to flower in there, I just want to get it right the first time the best I can.

I want to make it as much enclosed as possible, I was going frame it out with 2x4, line the whole thing with 3.5 mil black plastic. (1 or 2 layers?). And then line the walls and probably the ceiling with 2 mil mylar.

There will probably be some cracks especially door opening, I guess I will make a velcro door.
For air intake, I was going to just make a hole and let the exhaust fan suck air in. I can let additional outdoor air in through a 4 inch duct, either directly into the tent or just passive into the basement.
Also, my basement is rather low, so the size would be more like 6x6x5.8.

One thing to consider is that I am doing a vertical grow, heat isn't being reflected down by the hood, and the lamp is being cooled by a fan under it. I've read that vertical setups are easier with heat issues.

What room size should I make? Also to consider, that I may like to expand up to 2K in the future.
 

tet1953

Well-Known Member
I am in the process of building a new room myself. I just finished one about a month ago, and I have room for a second one right next to it. My goal is to basically have a room vegging and a room budding, and chop every 8-10 weeks or so. I used black and white poly for the first room (6 mil, black one side white the other, aka Panda I believe). I wouldn't hesitate to use it again if necessary, and in fact I will use it for the ceiling of the second room. For the walls I am going to use white wall paneling, like you might use in a bathroom.

How many plants do you plan to get into a 6x6 space? Are you doing LST? That's tying branches down to let light get to lower nodes etc. More yield but takes more square footage. Of course it depends on how long you veg for, but in that amount of space I'd say you're going to have a sea of green with 5 or 6 plants.

Here is a link to the room I just built: https://www.rollitup.org/grow-room-design-setup/427087-my-new-room.html

I am just about ready to switch to bud on that room, so I'm going to snap a pic or two and upload tomorrow probably. Building the second room this week.
 

drcheat

Member
This grow, I will have a number of smaller plants, a few larger ones. I'm not sure yet how man I will be able to fit. I don't think I will be using the whole growing space this first time. I will be utilizing the Scrog method using a garden fence. It is alot like lst except you train the branches around the fence. This time I'm using soil, but I want to build some kind of hydro system next time, probably buckets, and I will veg for more than a few weeks. Right now I have alot of small ones.

It will kind of be like this.
https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/428104-600w-vertical-hericules-slh-lady.html
Except I have 2 lights, no cool tube.
 
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